Onesies Art

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….at the baby shower guests were invited to decorate white onesies with personal messages and art

Our daughter, A, has never been too excited about party games but for her sister’s baby shower she acquiesced and found a fun activity for people to participate in. Actually she found three activities but I’d like to share the onesie project with you.

We weren’t sure if people would gravitate toward this task because it did require some thought and creativity. Surprise, surprise….people loved it. First of all A went out and purchased about a dozen plain white onesies in a variety of sizes. She was able to get them for about $3.00 a piece. You also need fabric markers and cardboard for this project.

A and J cut up cardboard to fit inside each onesie so that the marker would not bleed through to the back. In the backyard a work table was set up and people went outside throughout the afternoon and created their masterpieces. When they were all done, G, the mother to be, judged them all and picked her favourite. The winner went home with a bottle of wine. It wasn’t an easy task (the judging that is) and some of us who organized the shower quietly took ourselves out of the mix and made sure that our designs didn’t win. I had already won the matching game, my sister had won the guessing game and A and J felt it wouldn’t look good if someone else in the family won another prize.

All the finished onesies were put on a clothesline to dry. I forgot to take a photograph of the finished pieces but my daughter kindly photographed each individual onesie from her home and sent them to me. By the way she photographed them after she washed them so it’s good to know that the marker didn’t fade in the wash.

Which one is your favourite?

Starry Nights

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….another great art lesson for kids

Thanks to Carla Sonheim and Diane Culhane from Kids Art Week for this great lesson called Crayon Resist Night Sky.

This would be a great introduction to Vincent Van Gogh and his famous painting Starry Night. I used oil pastels but wax crayons would also work for this project. Students should be encouraged to use lighter colours from the crayon box, especially white. They make the most impact after the water colour is washed over them.

This could also be a lesson on texture so colouring in various directions and pressing quite hard are essential. Swirls and stars will add visual interest and are details seen in Van Gogh’s painting. Be brave and experiment with lots of different colours. Don’t limit yourself to colours that you think are sky colours. Reds, pinks and yellows and even greens make for very interesting night skies. Think of the Northern Lights and have fun.

Once the paper is filled with crayon or oil pastels move on to the water colours. Make them quite watery and start with the darker colours at the top of the page. Again use a variety of colours but avoid black. While the paint is wet you can also add salt to give your painting even more texture.

Using black or a very dark paper cut out silhouette shapes to add to the bottom of your painting. This can be anything you like; forests, hills, mountains, houses, fences and city skylines. When the paint is dry glue the shapes to the bottom of the paper. There you have it, your very own Starry Night painting.

A Bit of Cleaning, Some Reading, Making Bean Soup and Visiting Friends

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….Monday, July 6, 2015

People often wonder what I do at the cottage all day, especially when I’m up here alone. Well there’s lots to do but no pressure as to when I do it. I like that.

Instead of spending two days of solid cleaning when I first open the cottage I like to spread it out and do a little bit every day. I take care of the absolute essentials when I first arrive, like fill up the water barrel, start the fridge, make the bed, uncover the furniture and wipe down all the surfaces that I’ll be using right away.

On subsequent days, I’ve washed all the dishes, even though they were clean when I left in October, wiped out the cupboards and restocked them and organized my clothes and put them back into the dresser. All of this is necessary because at some point in the months when we’re away a few rodents manage to find their way into the cottage, looking for warmth, food and shelter. Unfortunately for some of them they don’t survive and I usually find a few carcasses lying about and of course evidence that they’ve been around. Luckily this year the evidence has been minimal and a few of them had drowned in a bucket of water that was inside the cottage.

One of my goals this summer is to finish reading the books that I started this year and then didn’t finish before I picked up another to read. I’m happy to report that I’ve finished two of them and am concurrently reading two more. I also started a new book and I finished that as well. I think I will report on those books in a future post.

Another goal is to do a little bit of art everyday or at least a couple of times a week. I completed one art assignment this week and I started sketching in my art journal. Another goal well on it’s way!

I didn’t bring up a lot of food on this visit but enough to get me through the week. When I was cleaning out the cupboards I noticed that I had left a container of dried beans here over the winter. I decided to make soup from scratch. I turned on the side burner on the BBQ and cooked onions, celery and carrots in a large soup pot. I added a chopped clove of garlic and then 4 cups of broth, 2 cups of water, a tin of diced tomatoes and 1 cup of dried beans. I added salt and pepper to taste and then I let it cook for 2 hours. After the two hours I looked in the fridge to see what else I could add and I found some chick peas, cooked hamburger and fresh mushrooms. I chopped up the burgers and the mushrooms and added everything to the pot. I let it cook for a few more minutes and dinner was ready. I grated in some fresh parmesan cheese. Delicious!

Of course I had way more soup than I could eat so I put the rest into container and froze it for future meals and I kept some in the fridge for another dinner this week.

While I was cooking I got a phone call from a friend who has a cottage four roads over from mine. She invited me to come to her place for a chat, a glass of wine and to see the finished renovations on her cottage. The soup had pretty much finished cooking, so I turned it off and walked over (1500 steps). The cottage looked fantastic and since we hadn’t seen each other since January we had a nice long gab and got caught up on each other’s lives.

When I finally left it was going on 8:00 and I ended up having a late dinner. The nice part was that it was already cooked, I just had to reheat it. Even though it was getting dark I ventured down to the beach for one last walk and just managed to get in my 10,000 steps for the day. I did decide though that leaving my walk for that late wasn’t the best decision because the mosquitoes also come out at that time. Note to self, walk before the sun sets.

So that’s my day in a nutshell. Everyday I read a little, do art a little, cook, clean and visit friends, either in person or on the phone. I hope all of you enjoy your days as much as I do. Cheers!

Print Making at the Cottage

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..Sunday, July 5, 2015

A few days ago I wrote about stopping in Midland to purchase some tracing paper. On Sunday I took the six sheets that were gifted to me and tore them in half. I now had 12 sheets of paper to experiment with and attempt Lesson 13 from the Year of the Spark. As some of you know I’m taking an on-line course with Carla Sonheim and Lynn Whipple.

This week’s assignment comes from Carla. We’ve been instructed to paint a picture with black acrylic paint onto a piece of plexiglass and then, before it dries lay a piece of tracing paper on top to create a print. After creating several prints we are suppose to lay interesting papers underneath that will show through the tracing paper and add bits of collage to the surface to create a new piece of art. The final step is to photograph the finished piece and then the actual artwork is the photograph.

Being at the cottage I was somewhat limited with what I could use. My black paint dried pretty quickly and I didn’t have the extender that would have solved that problem. I quickly threw some papers into a bin before I came up here but I was wishing I had added more, especially more of my gelli prints. Having said that I’m pretty pleased with the pieces that I’ve created. I’m thinking that some of these might make interesting cards. What do you think?

Share Your World 2015 – Week 25

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….. thanks Cee for four more thought provoking questions

What did you or did not like about the first apartment you ever rented?

Our first apartment was a basement apartment in uptown Toronto. We were close to the subway and great shopping and restaurants. I didn’t like being in the basement. Our windows faced the parking lot and driveway so we had to contend with cars rolling past our windows.

What kind of art is your favorite? Why?

My favourite art includes abstract paintings, watercolour or acrylic and collage and mixed media art. I don’t like things that are hyper realistic. I’d rather take a beautiful photograph.

A Ray Cattell painting.

How many siblings do you have? What’s your birth order?

I’m the oldest of three girls. When my son was born he was the first male born on my father’s side of the family in 50 years.

The three Winkler sisters.

Complete this sentence: I’m dreaming of a white …. (and no you can’t use Christmas as your answer)

This one stumped me for a few minutes. In fact, I went for a walk and really thought about this question. I’ve already owned a white car and my husband has one now. It wasn’t by choice for either of us but at the time they were our only options. I’ve really learned to appreciate white flowers and one of my favourite bouquets this year was all white.

I’m not very fussy about white weddings or white clothes. I don’t like white food, unless it’s vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream and white walls leave me cold. I do, however, like bright white trim. Therefore, I’m dreaming of painting all the trim in the house white. I also love crisp white sheets and big soft white towels.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a wonderful weekend with the family. We did a double Father’s Day celebration. On Saturday my husband and I hosted a BBQ at our place and our girls and their significant others and two of our best friends joined us. My husband did most of the cooking because it’s what he loves to do. I did all the running around and picked up things that we needed. We also went across the street for a bit to congratulate our neighbour on her retirement.

Our daughter and son-in-law couldn’t keep the gender of their baby secret any longer and they shared the news with us. Unfortunately I promised to keep it a secret for a little bit longer and not share it with the world right now.

On Sunday, we drove to my Dad’s place in Oshawa and celebrated Father’s Day with him. My sister took the train in from Chatham and we all shared a meal at their new apartment. I brought a salad made from the lettuce in our garden and Dad picked up his special treat, KFC.

One other thing that I’m grateful for was a very enjoyable Tea that my friend L and I hosted for four students from school. It really was fun and the kids learned a lot about ‘tea etiquette’ and a little bit more about their teachers.

This week I’m looking forward to the staff party and to the last day of school and the start of our summer break.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Vivid

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….this week’s WP weekly photo challenge is Vivid

An Artful Sunday

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….I stayed home to work on samples for tomorrow’s art workshop

I started mid morning. K drove to Hamilton to help our daughter put in her garden. Normally I would have gone with him but I knew that if I didn’t get an early start on my samples they wouldn’t get done or I would be staying up until the wee hours of the morning to finish them.

In our workshop tomorrow the children will be making their own journals from scratch. All the materials for the books are already laid out and ready to go. The focus of this year’s hand made book is decorating the cover with photographs, artwork and fancy paper. The collage should have some personal message on the cover. I’ve encouraged the boys and girls to bring in photocopies of family photos. At school I’ve have lots of papers, magazines and covers that the kids can play with. Thanks to Lynn Whipple for this fabulous idea. Here are my samples that I will share with the classes tomorrow.

After I finished the covers I went back to a project that I started a couple of months ago but stopped mid-stream. It’s a technique where you glue photos to the back of a piece of glass or plexiglass facing the front and then you paint the background on the back of the glass. It’s called reverse painting and requires that you turn your work over periodically so that you can see how it looks on the front. I actually enjoyed the process more than I thought I would. This was also an assignment from Lynn Whipple from Year of the Spark.

I choose a photograph of my great great grandparents and aunts and uncles. I learned that they periodically vacationed in Africa so I decided to add some large ferns from a Geli print that I had done last year and I drew a sketch of an elephant and placed it behind the ferns. I always associate orange skies with Africa but I’m not sure what the castle in the sky signifies. Freud would probably have a hay day analyzing this piece; well to do Germans, early 1900s, vacationing in Africa, castle in the sky, elephants, etc..

After finishing the books and the reverse painting I drove to three different places looking for a place to trim or buy a new mat for a painting that I’m donating to the silent auction next Saturday at the school’s Fun Fair. I have a great frame but the mat that came with it covered too much of the painting. Unfortunately I didn’t find anyone to help me. I did however get a name of a place, close to work, that I’m going to try tomorrow.

When I returned home I put the reverse painting into its frame and then I opened my art journal and decided to start this week’s assignment. I’m suppose to play with colours and come up with different palettes with five colour combinations that appeal to me. Once I’ve finished that I’m suppose to create a self portrait (very open ended) using my favourite. palette.

So far I’ve created several palettes. Most of them were done using acrylic paint and one uses pan pastels. Do you have a favourite?

Owls, Owls and More Owls – Part 2

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..after printing several owls each child had to choose one for the library wall and another for their chalk pastel tree

From the beginning of this assignment I told the children that they had to have at least two good owls; one for the Forest of Reading wall in front of the library and another one to glue to another piece of art.

I wanted each student to experience using chalk pastels. After a quick lesson on how to blend the colours and how to draw a somewhat realistic branch I gave the children a choice of black or dark blue construction paper. The concept of creating a realistic looking branch was a little foreign to some students and I had to encourage them to look out the window and study the trees outside.

A few students decided to have a family of owls sitting in their tree. One student accidentally glued his owl upside down on the branch and decided to call him an owl bat. I love the variety of owls that were created, from very realistic to very whimsical. Enjoy!

Too Tired to Write

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….so I’ll post a few photos of my weekend

It was a somewhat busy weekend with running to clinics, grocery shopping (twice), painting, reading (but not enough), walking and running (yeah, I can still do it), blogging, laundry and helping a friend sort through 40 years of paperwork. I’m exhausted and need to get to bed before 11:00. Here is a gallery of my weekend.

Share Your World 2015 – Week 15

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..thanks Cee for four more interesting questions

Regarding your fridge, is it organized or a mess inside?

I’m embarrassed to say that at the moment my fridge is a mess. Over the years all the plastic shelves and drawers have broken. We looked into replacing these pieces but the cost was ridiculous, over $700.00. The fridge itself works well but It’s become increasingly difficult to keep it organized.

Have you ever been a participant in a parade? What did you do?

Why does this question sound familiar? The only parade I remember participating in occurred when I went to summer day camp and at the end of the summer or end of the session (I don’t remember) we participated in a parade where all the different city camps got together and put on a parade. I might have been in a parade when I was a girl guide. It’s all a blur now.

How do you stand out from the crowd?

I tend to have a very loud and distinctive laugh. People always say they know where I am in a building by my laugh. When I was younger I used to be the narrator in school plays and today I find myself quite comfortable being the master of ceremonies at large school gatherings.

How many bones, if any, have you broken?

I have never broken a bone. About 20 years ago I had a very bad fall. I fell from the top of our stairs to the landing below and didn’t break a thing. Apart from a slight concussion, a few abrasions and bruises my injuries were pretty minor. I think I hit my head on the way down and knocked myself unconscious so I fell I like a rag doll. Falling into a full laundry basket probably helped as well.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

This week I’m grateful for sunny weather and milder temperatures and time spent with a group of friends from high school. I’m also grateful for small accomplishments, like finally getting my solar light drilled into the brick wall over our house number. I also found time to do some sketching this week and completed 2 paintings.

This week I’m looking forward to another afternoon concert put on by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. My friend CL and I will be meeting for lunch and then heading downtown to the university where the concert is being held. I’m also looking forward to a new on-line lesson from the Year of the Spark, this time given by Lynn Whipple. I was also thinking of turning some of my bird sketches into paintings.